PORT TOWNSEND — For 20 years, the Yesango Marimba Ensemble of Port Townsend has performed traditional styles that date back a millennium.
“I love this music because it is 1,000 years old and is really amazing,” said Ja Wallin, a member of the ensemble that is celebrating 20 years of performing music that originated in Zimbabwe.
“It’s holy music and honors the ancestors.”
Yesango is winding up this season with two performances: from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Port Townsend Farmers Market on Tyler Street between Lawrence and Clay streets and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 5 at the Pourhouse, 2231 Washington St.
Both performances are free. The Pourhouse show is restricted to those older than 21.
The 10-member band plays four different types of marimbas — soprano, tenor, baritone and bass — along with percussion.
Songs begin with simple melodies on the soprano marimba. Each instrument joins in with a complementary pattern, building to an often cacophonous climax before returning to the beginning.
“It’s polyrhythmic and very mathematical. What you play weaves in between the spaces of what everyone else is playing,” said founding member Jerry Harpole.
“It’s not improvised. It’s very structured.”
The group now consists of founding members Jay Haskins — who at 81 is the oldest member — Dancer Flowergrowing, Pat Carter, David Lesser, Lisa Mahon and Harpole along with Wallin, Nora Regan, Ellen Falconer and Davis Fogerty, the most recent addition and, at 28, its youngest member.
Several of them work in the health care field. The group also includes a retired boatbuilder and a mechanical engineer.
They rehearse weekly in a house on 16th Street rented expressly for that purpose and perform about six times a year — although the future is always uncertain.
“We do this one year at a time,” Carter said.
“Although Davis [Fogerty] has committed for two years, and he has one left, which means so do we.”
The group would like to recruit new members, with the requirements of being able to lift things and owning a pickup truck, although marimba skills — which originate, predictably, from practice and talent — are important.
Competency can take about five years, band members say, although there are some exceptions.
“I’ve seen people who have never played a marimba, but they play the drums and they pick it up in a matter of hours,” Fogerty said.
The marimba, a percussion instrument consisting of wooden bars placed above resonators that are struck with mallets to produce musical tones, are used in jazz ensembles and marching bands.
Regan calls the performance experience “like playing whack-a-mole.”
The marimbas used by Yesango are modeled after those invented in Africa.
Yesango has about 28 songs in its repertoire, all traditional melodies and harmonies that have been passed down through the generations.
“This is music that was created 1,000 years ago that we are creating note by note, which is why it’s magic and why people like it,” Wallin said.
“It’s traditional and learned from teachers and not written down.”
On the other hand, she said, some people don’t like the music because it is not modern, improvised or electric.
The group has recorded two CDs, “Yesango — Growing in the Wild” in 2002, followed by “Playing in the Wind” in 2007.
In addition to many local events including the Wooden Boat Festival, Low Tide Festival and Kinetic Sculpture Race, the Yesango Marimba Ensemble has performed at regional venues throughout the Puget Sound area, including the Zimbabwean music festivals in Victoria, Port Townsend and Seattle.
They also have performed at the Oregon Country Fair, the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts and the Washington State International Kite Festival in Long Beach.
The reaction is always the same.
“People come up to us in tears,” Mahon said.
“It’s happy music and makes people feel joyful to be alive.”
For more information go to www.yesangomarimba.com.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
